


Sweet Valentine

by Beneath_the_Trees



Category: Original Work
Genre: A Goodbye, Bittersweet, Death, Eulogy-type note, Family, For My Grandfather, Grief/Mourning, Heaven, Miss you, Say Hi to God, Valentine - Freeform, goodbye letter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 04:44:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13710093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beneath_the_Trees/pseuds/Beneath_the_Trees
Summary: A goodbye to one of the greatest men in the world.





	Sweet Valentine

As a lot of my readers probably know, I like to write out details and describe everything down to the last detail. I'm unable to write a full story that is filled with action or fluff or even plot in 2,000 words or less; I almost find it physically impossible. Yet if you were to leave me here to write out everything I know, this story would take years to tell. I could fill so many books with stories of my grandfather and the adventures he had. That is why I'm going to do my best to keep this short and sweet, and tell only the best, most wonderful parts of the man I was honored to call Grandpa.

This year's Valentine's Day was a bittersweet one, as the world had lost a wonderful man that day. Valentine Lammert was a man with a full life. He's done things I can only dream of doing- two of my favorites having been being a consort to the queen and meeting the Beatles in person. He was a marine during WW2. He showed a prince the St. Louis arch when it was first built. He had 4 loving kids and I am one of his many grandchildren. He was loved by many, and he passed away mere hours after seeing some of his loved ones. He died peacefully at the age of 94.

Even with all the amazing things he's done in his life, he was not written about in history books. By all literal, physical history accounts he could be seen as a nobody. Someone who was there and yet not; just a passing glimpse in a photo of a face you would never remember. He may have not been important to the world, even with all the amazing things he has done, or even seemed special. To me, though, he was the most amazing thing. He told interesting stories and I loved bragging about him whenever I could in school-- I even "interviewed" him for a project in elementary school (and one of my cousins did, too)! I was always excited to see him each and every holiday. He was the only one who's face I remembered earliest out of all my older relatives. We shared a birthday month and spent each one at my home for over 10 years. He always had a truckload of small, fun-sized candy that he gave to his the children's choir at his church and let me take a bag of home every time I came to visit; he was the family and his church's very own candy man!

Grandpa Val was warm, and fun to hug. He was kindhearted and always there when you needed him. He was strong; he went through so much and yet he was always smiling, even after losing his wife, my mother, and two of his grandkids before him. He lived on and laughed and spent each day doing what he loved until he couldn't any longer. He was 94; didn't move into an assisted living facility until just around a year ago. He was a light in the family that everyone loved, the family's personal valentine's day gift that was there every year to make you feel like the world. He had a heart full of gold and a life filled to the brim.

According to his friends and my older relatives, just like he was my angel, I was his. Knowing that he loved me so much he'd light up every time I called and he would talk about me like I was "an angel given to him" makes me wish I had called more, visited more, said "I love you to the moon and back" more. It makes me sad to know that I will never get the chance to do it again, and at the same time I'm so very happy I could give him more joy than I ever expected I was able give him. The Angel In My Pocket coin he gave me so many years ago now has a physical angel attached to it, and I shall cherish every bit of it and carry it with me wherever I go.

He was the best grandfather anyone could ask for, and I'm so incredibly grateful that I was one of the lucky ones who got to be apart of that family from the moment I was born.

I'll miss you Grandpa, and know that you will always be my most cherished Valentine, even if you are no longer with us. Say hi to mom and cousins Chris and Courtney for me. I'll see you again, someday.

[ ](http://ibb.co/drMk37)

 

_**Valentine Lammert** _

_**Our Sweet Valentine** _

_**Our Angel In Our Pockets** _

_**A Loving Father, Grandfather, and Great-Grandfather** _

 

_**July 30th, 1924-- February 14, 2018: Valentine's Day** _

[ ](http://imgbb.com/)


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